G. Feinman

Ancient Oaxaca: The Valley of Oaxaca: a regional setting for an early state

When we speak with the public or beginning students about the preHispanic inhabitants of Mesoamerica, they generally are familiar with the Aztecs, the Maya, and even the great Classic-period central Mexican site of Teotihuacan. There is less recognition of the ancient societies of Oaxaca. This lack of familiarity is somewhat peculiar because the earliest evidence for Mesoamerican writing, dating to 600 B.C., has been found in the Valley of Oaxaca (see box 3). Likewise, Mesoamericas earliest city, Monte Albán, scenically situated on a 400-meter-high hill at the core of one of Mesoamericas first states, was founded at the center of the valley around 500 B.C. This early urban center was the capital of a state that endured and remained influential for more than 1000 years. Archaeologists have long been interested in Monte Albán and its history, antecedents, and surroundings (see Whitecotton 1977). Nineteenth-century archaeological explorers described the famous hilltop city and its carved stones and monumental architectural ruins (e.g., Holmes 1895-97). These pioneers recognized that the glyphs carved on stones at Monte Albán are different from those of the ancient Maya in the eastern lowlands of Mesoamerica. They also noted certain shared conventions between these two sets of hieroglyphs, such as a numerical system in which a bar stood for five and a dot for one. In the 1920s, the pathbreaking Mexican anthropologist Alfonso Caso first identified the Oaxacan stones as culturally Zapotec, carefully describing the differences between Zapotec writing and that found in other regions (Caso 1928, 1965a and b). During his fifty-year career, Caso established that the ancient Zapotecs of the Valley of Oaxaca developed one of the most powerful and important societies in all of ancient Mesoamerica. By the 1950s he had cleared and reconstructed Monte Albáns Main Plaza. Together with his student Ignacio Bernal, he established the basic ceramic chronology that is still used to date sites in the Valley of Oaxaca (Caso, Bernal, and Acosta 1967). Caso also excavated more than 100 pre-Hispanic tombs, including one of the richest (tomb 7)

Ancient Oaxaca: Contents

1. Introduction: Mesoamerica and its pre-Hispanic civilization 2. The Valley of Oaxaca: a regional setting for an early state 3. The origins of Monte Alban 4. The great transformation 5. Synthesis and conclusion Epilogue.

Ancient Oaxaca: Index

1. Introduction: Mesoamerica and its pre-Hispanic civilization 2. The Valley of Oaxaca: a regional setting for an early state 3. The origins of Monte Alban 4. The great transformation 5. Synthesis and conclusion Epilogue.